No armchair genus tick for Lancashire (yet)

[Colin Adams]

Those of you with a copy of Field Guide to the Dragonflies of Britain ead Europe Dijkstra & Lewington 2006 who have read it front-to-back, may have noticed the possibility of Sympetrum fonscolombii (Red-veined Darter) being re-classified into genus Tarnetrum.

I have just been reading a paper published last year that did a genetic and morphological study on Sympetrum. A conclusion is that fonscolombii and other species that have been assigned to Tarnetrum form the oldest species group within the genus, or possibly the elder sister of Sympterum (as Tarnetrum). They hesitiate to decide between the two possibilites, so no extra genus can be added to the Lancashire list just now.

I'll send a copy of the paper to anyone who is interested. Just email me (off-list) - colinpa...@gmail.com